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PLANNING APPLICATIONS ARE down by 17 per cent as the decline in the construction industry shows no sign of abating, according to a new index.
Figures released today show only one county – Donegal – saw an increase in housing planning applications in 2012, while Kildare saw the largest decline with a drop of 34 per cent.
The National Housing Construction Index found that overall construction industry has decreased significantly on 2011, particularly in western and border counties counties. Roscommon saw a drop in building of 30 per cent, followed by Laois and Donegal (both 27 per cent).
Westmeath topped the list of just six counties which saw an increase in the number of building projects which were started in 2012 compared to 2011.
The National Housing Construction Index is compiled by Link2Plans which counts every housing construction planning applications and planning commencement in each county.
Danny O’Shea of Link2Plans said the index showed there had been a slow down in the rate of decline in building and that there was reason for optimism for this year.
“If these trends [the increase in planning commencements in six counties] continue into 2013, we could expect to see numbers potentially rising in the first half of this year which is potentially very positive news for the sector as a whole,” he said.
Figures released earlier this month by the Construction Industry Federation found that fewer than 8,500 houses were built in Ireland last year – a drop of almost 2,000 on the previous year.
A Deutsche Bank report last year suggested there were almost 300,000 houses lying empty in Ireland as a result of the huge surplus of homes which were built during the property boom years.
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Wow! Now even the bins are spying on us. All we need now is for public toilets to record all our “movements” and the colour of our underwear and big brother will know all it possibly could about us. Who needs privacy?!
Good one shirley, “movements” lol!!
They likely already do. Think about the movement activated flushes and the movement activated lights.
*may or may not be serious, I’ll let you decide.
Ha ha, nice one Shirley, what colour is your under pants indeed………?
Public toilets testing your ‘movements’ has been proposed to screen for health problems. I think it would be a great idea really, provided the information was confidentially passed to a smart phone or emailed to you.
What underpants? Commando is the only way to go in this weather!
Good one Shirley.
“Colour of your underwear”..hmm
What if….What if the bins refuse to stop collecting data?
And so it begins…..
I love London, it’s my 34th favorite place in the world to be.
You’re my 34th favourite poster on the Journal.ie
That’s the 27th time somebody has said that to me
It would never work here – no bins.
So why, with so much surveillance, can’t they find the idiots who damaged signals so the Dart is out of action this morning
Those bins are in London
My god why cant a bin just collect rubbish? What next, laptops that recycle your lunch waste!?
My emails are already intercepted by my laptop and smartphone. Shocking.
The difference between hits on a website and this scenario is people are aware of cookies on their computer and informed again each time they go into a new website. Ya wouldn’t really be expecting a bin to be spying on you. A whole new meaning to bin it your way.
and strictly speaking web-sites aren’t supposed to share this with one another .. which is the focus of the rather big “Do Not Track” privacy-debate that is currently ongoing on the web …
How are people going to know if its collecting their data already?
How is the average Joe going to know they are going to turn it on or off in any case?
The government possibly already has this technology in bloody street lamps and we don’t know about it!
government = your elected representatives who have a security mandate (for better or worse)
Renew = a private enterprise, who may or may not flip your identity over to any bidder if times get tough
So now they will throw the bins in the rubbish, like a Big Brother has been!
Spooooky I means
Well I know “THEY” are spying on me. “THEY” keep taking money out of my pay cheque whether I like it or not.
Almost darlik like…sooooooky!
Just for future reference, it’s dalek.
Minority report.
Maybe they want to collect the parts for recycling. It is a good idea because some parts of phone are radio active.
Read the article again there chap.
Yes. But the same level of surveillance exists here in Ireland
If you think we have the same level of surveillance as they have in the UK, especially London, you’re either seriously paranoid or you’ve never visited the neighbours.
Most, if not all phone masts, are fitted with surveillance equipment here
Have you even read the article ???
My post was for Francis
You couldn’t piss crooked without them knowing it.
Has bins..
It looks like a Dalek prototype.
WTF!?
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